The second KDE 4 developers snapshot is now available. This 3.80.2 release includes source from all the KDE modules. Application developers are strongly advised to work primarily on KDE 4 from now on. This release builds with Qt 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 (but not the 4.2 preview). Packages are available for Kubuntu and currently working through the SUSE buildservice.

Comments

As I understand from the main developer of plasma the KDE foundations ( QT, KDElibs) was not ready to implement all those revolutionary ideas, but now I hope the needed stack are here so as users we would hopefully expect some concrete code to be shown.

I am just a fanatic planetkde reader; and the last presentation given by SEIGO about the state of plasma. But as he use a rather an unconventional English for me; perhaps I missed the meaning of his writing.

Facts:
- SEIGO ;) didn't really include much visual buzz in his presentation.
- Plasma in SVN has less code than one would hope it had.

Opinions:
- SEIGO sacrificed much of his time to work on other aspects of KDE while leaving Plasma a bit behind.
- I trust SEIGO to turn the ship around and make plasma rock the boat. Do it, SEIGO. Do it. Do it.

#btw, readers of my blog will attest that writing my name in capital letters is highly ironic. =) #

Sorry man just I have a limited access time for the internet where I work ; ( for today I have just 20 minutes) so reading an article, look up some words then making respond is a rather tough task, so no time to polishing my writing.

i'm sure he doesn't mind... so i hope your response wasn't serious as well, as aaron sure would feel sorry for you feeling sorry...

anyway, i think your first comment was right on track, aaron didn't do very much on plasma because the framework just wasn't there. tough he also uses a lot of time for other stuff - and that's not a bad thing of course.

btw there are other ppl helping out with plasma, or at least they are going to. check plasma.kde.org for a who-is!

Sometimes I feel it is dommage that high technical developers, get occupied by less technical affairs (although very important by the way) which can done by other people, I mean with so little resources manpower are so precious.

Mimoune

PS : This is perhaps a drawback of free speech in the internet, every jackass thinks he has ideas.

If you want to convince them of that, you'll first need to explain to them what Windows is, and that's already too complicate. And what KDE is, which is even more complicate (Windows users will probably never know what KDE is, even if they use KDE apps).

And after you've convinced them that it's important for them to know what Windows and KDE are, they will tell you that "they don't need Linux to run them".

The KDE project consists of many applications which are useful in their own right. You can introduce people to free software one program at a time, as their needs arise.

For example, one of the things I often do when "rescuing" a problematic Windows box is to install Firefox, and give the client a brief overview of its benefits over what they had before - chiefly that it provides safer web browsing with fewer popup adverts and also tabbed browsing. It is also very likely that there will be some extension for Firefox which provides a nifty feature that is very useful for the person in question. Adblock, spell checkers and the flash blocker are good examples.

A good reason to start with the web browser is that it is where a lot of people spend a lot of their time.

I think that if you were to replace the following applications on a Windows PC with free software, cross platform equivalents you would go a long way to easing the transition to a completely free software environment.

Basically I'd say why port to Windows? Because you can! Not only that, also because now with QT4 it is easier and possible. There has been KDE/Cygwin and I ran it before.

(And yes I have ran many KDE and GNOME releases on various OSes from the beginning ages of KDE 1.2.x)

Sure, there are some people who wouldn't switch, nor run it, nor like it, etcetera. Some would though. Some run Linux AND Windows. Some HAVE to run Windows. For their work for example. If you can run Linux for your work, hobby, from your parents basement, good! Not everyone can though. Keep it in mind.

Now, Windows lacks a good browser. There if Firefox, but Konqueror could compete here (as there is Safari which killed IE for Mac). OO.o/GIMP could use competition too. Imagine KOffice on Windows.

Many GTK programs run on Windows (I use them daily). Hardly any QT programs run on Windows though. I feel this is a missed opportunity by the KDE/QT people and I thought that with QT4 for Windows they realized that. Maybe they did and I speak too fast, who knows.

People who run say Firefox on Windows would be familiar with Firefox on Linux. The same would be true for Konqueror. That is just an advantage.

Yeah of course many QT applications run on Windows. That used to be only proprietary (and usually commercially) ones.

Now we can also get the open source and free ones on Windows. Those are the ones I'm refering to, obviously. E.g. Konqueror, Koffice, KDE.

@ Kevin Kofler, thank you very much for the link! Exactly what I was searching for. Seems its still stuck on KDELibs. The Cygwin/X port was more complete. One could actually run whole KDE using that but is just Cygwin/X of course whereas this is native.

Btw, when I switched to Linux I was happy that I had a familiar browser back then: Netscape Communicator (and a bit later, Mozilla although still Milestones). It meant I didn't have to relearn, and I could use this under both GNOME and KDE (back then I preferred KDE). I believe it really does help/contribute. Although they're different projects one could also check out the websites and FAQs of the Cygwin and WINE projects for arguments involving this concept.

Nah, they don't need to know or want to know.
They just need to know that it will works as expected.
Let me explain.

Basically it started like this:
- Switch from IE to Firefox over a 2 year period.
(He was getting way too much spyware. Why did you download/install this?
I don't know I followed instruction on the page... type of user)
- Switch "mail client" to Hotmail. (could have been Gmail nowadays)
- Removed IE icon from his Windows computer
- Switch Word to OpenOffice
- Ensure his favorites old DOS games works on Linux DOS emulator.

Then one day, I installed Linux on his laptop,
configured it and for all he knows it works the same,
with KDE on a Win9x theme.

As long as: he can type and print documents, play his DOS games,
surf the internet and read his email all day, he doesn't care.

He doesn't really know the difference and that's a good news.
End users should not need to know, as long as things works as expected.
End users don't care that their VCR are a FPGA, Linux box or something else,
as long as PLAY, RECORD, REWIND, FWD, STOP, ON/OFF works as expected.

So, to make a point, you can first transpose the user to free applications,
then if all they use are free applications then the OS under it doesn't matter,
as long as "it continues to works as expected".

They don't need to run Linux to help it, if they use Open-source apps on windows they help Linux anyway, because when they use Open-source apps they use open-standards, and we all know that closed-formats and closed-standards are the only real showstoppers for linux.

Not in all worlds. In the home yes, but in the office (other than the small office) it is IS, in particual the CIO who needs convincing. If they are already running free programs, and they have some linux expertise in house (the latter is easier to get than most people think), switching to linux will happen when someone mentions the word "Budget". Microsoft Windows + office is expensive, when you are talking about thousands of seats. Linux makes more sense in this space.

Don't forget that linux is multi-user from the ground up (Microsoft Windows almost is, but there are missing parts even today). Linux was designed for remote administration, Microsoft Windows wasn't. There are other advantages to linux in a large corporation as well.

Linux doesn't not come with the Microsoft license agreement. This makes things easier legally in some cases. At work I've had to accept several license agreements from Microsoft as part of automatic updates. However I am a contractor, not an employee, and thus not authorised to accept legal agreements. I've always wondered what would happen the above situation when to court for some reason. Not to mention several license agreements might conflict with other laws, but since nothing has been setteled in court, it isn't clear what happens.

When/if any of the above becomes important companies will start moving to linux. KDE is ready, and having versions that run on Microsoft Windows can ease the transisition.